Babylon 5 Creator Reveals Promising Update for The CW Reboot

Last fall, The CW revealed that it is developing a reboot of Babylon 5 for the network and now series creator J. Michael Stracynski is offering an update on the project, which while it did not get a pilot order, it’s not the end of the line. Stracynski shared on his Patreon (via TV Line) that network president Mark Pedowitz is still on board with the project and is “rolling” it to next year.

“I should mention that Mark is a great guy and a long-time fan of B5,” Stracynski wrote. “He worked for Warners when the show was first airing. Calling the [reboot] pilot a ‘damned fine script,’ he said he was taking the highly unusual step of rolling the project and the pilot script into next year, keeping B5 in active development while the dust settles on the [prospective] sale of the CW.”

He continued, “here’s the bottom line: Yesterday, Babylon 5 was in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2022. Today, Babylon 5 is in active development at the CW and Warner Bros. for fall 2023. That’s the only difference.”

The original Babylon 5 first debuted in 1993 as a television movie that was meant to boost the now-defunct Prime Time Entertainment Network (PTEN). Following the movie, the series was ordered into production and premiered on January 26, 1994. The series ultimately ran for five seasons and 110 episodes, moving from PTEN to TNT following PTEN shutting down in 1997. The series also spawned numerous TV movies and spinoffs as well as tie-in novels and comics. The original series starred Michael O’Hare, Bruce Boxleitner, Claudia Christian, Jerry Doyle, and Mira Furlan.

The Babylon 5 reboot is described as a “from-the-ground-up reboot” and will focus on a character from the original, John Sheridan, an Earthforce officer with a mysterious background assigned to the Babylon 5 space station, a five-mile-long space station in neutral space. Sheridan’s arrival triggers a destiny beyond anything he could have imagined when an exploratory Earth company accidentally triggers a conflict with a civilization a million years ahead of us.

Are you excited about the Babylon 5 reboot? How do you feel about this update on the project? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.